Springbank Open day 2017 15 Years Old 2001

This Springbank, an official release, a 15 year old Campbeltown malt from 2001 and bottled at 50%. 218 bottles in all. The Springbank distillery, established in 1828, is run much as it was a century ago. Uniquely in Scotch, every drop is floor malted, distilled, matured and bottled on the one site.

The make was distilled two and a half times from lightly peated, floor malted malt, and run into cast iron worm tubs. A Rum cask shaped it, lending brown sugar and a tropical lift. Mid age brings a fuller fruit and a deeper coastal complexity. Years in oak deepen the fruit and the maritime character together. Quality and tradition, not volume, have always been the watchwords here. The spirit is filled to cask and matured within the distillery walls. Few distilleries keep so much of the old craft alive under one roof. Campbeltown was once the whisky capital of the world, with more than thirty distilleries at its peak.

At a natural 50% it is full and oily. Brown sugar and a rum sweetness from the cask underpins oily orchard fruit, salt and a wisp of peat. It is deep and complex, the maritime spirit shining through. It closes long, oily and salty. This is the cult Campbeltown malt from J and A Mitchell.